Come Back When You Can
by IckieZiegler
Summary: Dante and Lulu try to cope when she is hospitalized.
1. Prologue

**Prologue – I've been let on to think that we've been trying for too long.**

The little legs dangled over the bench he had just climbed on to. His feet continuously kicked causing his small red shoes to become looser and the laces start to untie themselves. His bright smile was covered in white cream, which also happened to trip down his tiny fingers. He had become oblivious to the world around him as the sweet taste of his treat danced in his mouth.

Johnny had been walking passed nearly counting the second before he could fix himself up with the next jolt of caffeine to try and numb the overgrown hangover. He saw the young boy sitting on his own. At first it looked like a memory of his childhood playing tricks on his mind courtesy of the wall to wall drinking he had exposed himself to for the last weeks. He did a double take and finally let it sink in who it actually was. "Hey, Jake," he rushed over to the little guy and kneeled down to his level. "What are you doing here all by yourself?"

"Eaten ice cream…" the young child seemed pleased with himself. His eyes never once reached up to met Johnny.

"Where did you get that ice cream, buddy?"

"Aunty get it for me." He finally grinned up at Johnny. "Go to Daddy's work."

Johnny did his best to understand the three year old language in his slightly altered state. "Where is Aunty, Jake?"

"Aunty has nap nap time." His small finger pointed towards a tree around the corner of the nearest building. He could see a small glimpse of a tennis shoe poking out.

"Stay here, Jake. Don't move!" Johnny sprung up in sudden alert. He sprinted the view yards it took to get to the Lulu's fallen body. He gave quick glances to make sure he could see her nephew from where he knelt over the boy's aunt's body. He checked for a pulse while his own heart beat heavily in his chest. Her heart was beating, her lungs were hardly breathing, and no matter how much he shook her there was no conscious reaction. He scooped her up into his arms and walked towards the bench where he had left her nephew. "Come on, Jake. We need to take Aunty…" He didn't want to say hospital and alarm the young child. "…to visit Mommy really fast…" As he walked, Jake followed behind still focused on his ice cream.

**Sneak Peak: ****Lulu is admitted to the hospital.**

**Author's Note: **My latest story. I can't seem to stop myself from making them. I'm calling it the CB-Syndrome…and I mean that in the most respectful way. Her stories are awesome… all 200 of them.  
This is very much a Dante and Lulu story so don't let the fact that Johnny was the one to find Lulu phase you. He was in the right place at the right time.  
This is also a 10 chapter story, so 10 chapters left...which will be much longer. Any theories on what's going on? What do you think is wrong with Lulu?


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – Every time we drift we're forcing what is wrong.**

The smell of coffee filled Olivia's nostrils. The morning had been nearly perfect with her waking up next to her hunky new doctor boyfriend up until he had been called in. The beautiful breakfast she had been planning to make them after their first official night together was left sitting on the stove, and they had to make do with cheap coffee and stale donuts at the nurse's station. "I have to apologize again," Steve started.

"Don't you dare. You're here to save lives and there ain't nothing in that to be sorry about." In a confident whisper she leaned into him and said, "…just this way… Now you owe me another breakfast." The implications made the handsome doctor groan. It had been a rather successful and satisfying night he would love to have the honor of reliving.

The flirtatious moment was ended with the crash of the double doors being slammed opened. Johnny had used his back to usher the opening while protecting the girl he once thought he loved cradled in his arms. "Help me," he yelled. "Somebody help me!" Without even a moment's pause a gurney appeared at his side and he placed Lulu gently on top of it.

"Cubical Two!" Steve urged his staff and then disappeared behind a series of curtains.

"Lulu? What the hell happened?" Olivia rushed to Johnny's side. He was looking from side to side and turning around. "Johnny! What the hell happened to Lulu!"

"Jake!" His face flushed with panic as he yelled. Mentally he had back tracked his steps. Did he let Jake out of the car? Did he leave him in the emergency parking lot? Did he really just lose a cop's kid? His eyes worked the room hard hoping that the sight of a blond headed kid would stick out like a sore thumb.

"Johnny…" he heard and felt a familiar hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see the small child at the feet of the second woman he once loved. "Jake's here. He's fine. You're okay, right Jake?" Olivia smiled to the boy and chuckled at his exaggerated nod. "Tell me what happened with Lulu."

"I just found her," he exasperated. "I saw Jake sitting alone eating some ice cream, and he said that his Aunty was sleeping. She passed out on the docks around the corner from Kelly's. She was still breathing, but…" He almost continued until he saw the small eyes of a child who was completely unaware that the Aunty he loved, who had given him ice cream after Daddy said no, was in some sort of danger. "I need to call Lucky. They were supposed to be meeting him at the PCPD."

"I'll do it. Why don't you just take a seat? You look exhausted." Olivia scooped up Jake in her arms and walked around the desk of the Nurse's station without permission. She sat Jake down on the counter and pulled out her phone. Her heart swelled as she tried to figure out the words without having had a second to fully process them. "Hey honey," she said warily when the other line had been answered. "Look… No… This is important. Don't fog off your mother!" She demanded a little more harshly than her usual demeanor, and the tense silence on the other line screamed at her. "Listen, I am at the hospital… no… I'm fine… Lulu was just brought in…" There was no chance to finish the thought. The call ended abruptly.

Dante's mind raced from one end to another on the spectrum of terror. He considered all the violent people in her life and all the people in the town that hated him. It was almost as if every person he had met in the past year blamed her for loving him, and the idea of him being the cause of her pain resonated in his gut. He shook his head as he tried to wash the terrible thoughts from his mind, and tried to remember the last few days. A cold. She had had a cold. It was a simple cold that had made her want to eat nothing but crackers and sleep all day. A notion he had vastly encouraged, but it was impossible to stop her from pushing herself.

The ten minute drive from the precinct to the hospital only took two, and he sprinted into the hospital. "Where is she?" He demanded from his mother. He took inventory of the tears that streamed her face, the deceptive look of grief in her eyes, and followed the finger as she pointed to a room. Without thanks or thought he stormed into the directed room. There had been so much rushing and speed the second he knew something was wrong, but the world stopped when he entered the doors. She was pale, laying eyes closed on the shrinking bed, and the slow sound of her heart beating on the monitor impaled the entire room. He sank into the chair next to the bed and pulled her cold hand into his. He wanted to cry.

"Dante?" Someone said cautiously behind him.

"What could you possibly want, Carly?"

"I was in the hospital. They wouldn't tell Olivia anything, because she isn't family… Lucky had to Jake home so I'm here waiting for them to tell us what the hell is going on."

"You must be enjoying this."

"I don't and to be perfectly honest I would prefer you trade places with her in a heartbeat."

"Finally something we agree on," as he said it his voice broke. The anger was replaced with consuming fear. "They haven't said anything? Is she just sick, or hurt, is she dying?" He openly sobbed.

"Don't you dare!" Carly made the physical effort to stop herself from hitting him. "You don't get to think like that! You don't get to give up!" She yelled.

"What the hell do you care, anyway? You've been trying to hurt us."

"Hurt! I wanted her to feel the way I felt when she chose you. I get to be angry and vengeful, because she's my family. You took her away and now she's practically a stranger! I get to be hurt and make you hurt, but it's only hurt. This!" she pointed at her fallen cousin and continued, "…this is different." Her voice turned into sorrow. "She's not allowed to be dying. It's not acceptable for her to disappear and have the last year be all we had. Her being fine and getting better, cured even, is the only acceptable outcome."

He chucked, "That's what Lulu said when Maxie was sick." He wiped the tears from his eyes.

"When you were shot she sat by your bedside and kept talking to you. I walked in on her talking like you might not wake up, she might never see you again, and I told her to stop being selfish. She started fighting for you and you are going to do the same for her. Any problems… anything… nothing else matters now. There is nothing more important than fighting for her, because that is what she needs from us."

"You too?"

"Of course! She is my family and I do love her. I shouldn't have had to find her in the emergency room to remember that…" She took a deep breath and buried her overwhelming sadness. "I'll give it all up. All the plots, I will give up on hating you if it means it she is okay." She paused. "If you stay by her side and stay strong for her then I will never question your love for her again. But!" she stressed. "If you give up on her for even a second then I will make it my life's mission to torture you…" Tears fell from her eyes. "…because the second we start to give up on her she'll give up on herself." Her eyes watched his head unconsciously nod in agreement.

"What did the doctor's say?" He asked with a raw throat. He was drained after feeling every emotion he imagine in the span of a minute.

"She's been unconscious for awhile and they don't know why. They're running every test imaginable."

"Why does she look so pale?"

"They don't know. They don't know anything right now. She's just sick." Carly drew in a deep breath and then audibly exhaled. "I'm going to go get us some coffee…"

The minutes spread into hours until he had curled up in the chair he hadn't moved from. A small blue blanket was tucked under his chin and his head had fallen to the side. As he started to wake the soreness in his neck made him wince. He used one hand to wipe the sleep from his eyes and the other to rub the cramped area. He focused on the limp hand and then worked his way up to her beautiful face to find her eyes looking back deep into his.

**Sneak Peak: ****Lulu's brothers come to visit. **

**Author's Note: **9 chapters left. I understand that everybody hates Carly….except for me and like two other people in the universe. I take comfort in knowing that one of those two is Laura Wright. I have a love hate relationship with this chapter…I hope you enjoyed it. So far the biggest theory is that Lulu is pregnant…which knowing my stories would probably make sense. Now that you know she is sick, what do you really think is wrong with her?

Thank you for reading. Please remember to comment.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – At last that voice is gone.**

Lulu was aware of the heat that clouded her skin. She felt it particularly surrounding her eyes which had developed pale red circles around them. Any pigment to her skin was beginning to vanish with the exception of small bright rashes. They would appear and continue to haunt anywhere a needle had landed. She never felt them. They only place she wasn't completely numb was the hand her lover held onto nearly too tight. "What happened?" She asked in a husked voice and her throat burned. There was a sudden flush of panic. "Where's Jake?" Her bold willed itself to sit up but fell in a fit of pain.

"Shh… Jake's fine," Dante soothed. He carefully constructed his reactions. His fear was not something more he was going to plague her with. "John Zacchara brought you in. he found you and Jake, brought you to the hospital, and called Elizabeth and Lucky. Lucky took him home… He's fine…" He paused and offered the closest thing to a reassuring smile he could muster. "You should just stay calm and rest. Dr. Webber will probably show up in about twenty minutes."

"If someone can pry him off your mother," she finished the thought for him, and yawned. "I feel like I have been sleeping for days."

"You have been," he conceded. "Three days." She searched his face for more answers in confusion. "Every once and a while you'd open your eyes, maybe say a word or two, but Dr. Drake said you were always asleep."

"Am I asleep now?" She felt like crying.

"No," he said with the first genuine smile. "I think you're really awake. You don't ask questions in your sleep." With tears in his eyes he admitted, "I haven't gone and gotten a doctor yet because I'm scared you will be asleep again by the time I get back." The slight of him broke her. He wiped the drops from her cheeks and then his own. "Hey… don't do that."

"You started it," she sniffled back at him.

The squealing of the door interrupted their moment, and Lulu blinked up to see the interesting slight of all three of her brothers enter the room together. "Is she awake?" one asked. The sound of his thick Australian accent was the only identifying factor she could manage.

"Why are you blurry?" she spoke as she thought. "Why aren't you blurry?" She turned to Dante whose facial expressions and general being she could scope out just about every detail. "I can't see you just fine!" Everyone else was expressing confusion and worry even though she couldn't tell. She was simply annoyed. "What the hell!"

"I'll go get a doctor!" A brush of gray rushed out the door. Even without recognizing the voice of her eldest brother she would have known it was him.

One figure came closer until she could make out Lucky's face. "Can you see me clearly now?" She nodded. "He sat on the edge of the bed close to her. "What the hell were you thinking?" He seemed neither concerned for her nor jesting. "Why the hell did you agree to babysit when you were sick?"

Before she could get past the hurt and confusion enough to respond a hand pulled Lucky back into the blur. "Now is not really the time, mate," Ethan said.

"She thought she had a cold," Dante was quick to defend her. "I highly doubt she would have taken her nephew out for ice cream had she known she would have passed out in the street."

Lulu found herself coughing uncontrollably. "Alright," stormed in Dr. Webber. "Everyone out!"

Her brothers made their exit in a single file line. As Dante began to rise from the seat next to her bed she exerted herself. "No!" she demanded and held his hand in her weak grip. "Please stay," she begged between coughs covered by her other hand. "I don't want him to go," she directed towards the doctor.

Steven took the measure of her blood pressure into account and saw her pulse racing. "Fine, but if anyone compromises your health then they're out of here." His warning was meant for her just as much as it was for her boyfriend. "It's hard to conduct business with an endless stream of Spencers running around the hospital."

"Would have thought you'd be use to it by now," she joked. The coughs came less frequently and her pulse was slowly starting to steady itself. It was still at a heightened rate. "Do you know what's wrong with me?"

"At this stage we're still ruling things out. We're continuing to monitor your condition and there is not a test we are not going to run. We will get to the bottom…"

"Did you have a bone marrow transplant…?" Dante asked her and then directed his next question to the doctor. "Could she be rejecting it."

"It was 20 years ago," she scoffed

"It is very unlikely that she would be rejecting the bone marrow this late, and there is no evidence of rejection." He looked down at the clipboard and then licked his lips. "We are doing everything we can." He exited unceremoniously.

"So… I'm sick…" she said aloud, but mostly to herself. Her headed nodded without reason. "He didn't say how bad it was. I mean …it has to be bad if they can't figure it out right …like how are they going to help me get better if they don't know what they are helping …so does that mean they can't help me? Am I dying?"

"No!" He grabbed both her hands and forced her to look at him. "Listen to me… you are going to be perfectly fine! They're just slow or something… but they will figure it out, you will get better, and then you're going to owe me so big."

"Owe you?" She smiled.

"Yeah. Just like owed you when you were at my bedside, and look how that turned out… look how good and new I am now?" His fingers played with hers. "Why don't you get some more rest? Get some sleep and I'll be here when you wake up again."

She surveyed his face and bit her lip before asking, "Will you lay with me?" She had the best pleading look in her eyes she could pull off and smile that screamed she needed him. "Please."

"I don't want to hurt you…" he whispered.

"I'll be fine, remember?" She scooted over in the bed. "I'll be even better." Any resistance would have been wasted. He strategically laid out on the bed and she folded on top of him in a comfortable sign.

**Author's Note: **8 chapters left. It's been forever, but this story is not dead.

Thank you for reading. Please remember to comment.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – Please take your time, but you've got to know that I am taking sight.**

Lulu's frame felt smaller against Dante's body, her weight heavier, and he spent his waking moments noticing just how unfamiliar she felt to his arms. When they had gone to bed it felt the way it always did in spite of his acute awareness and caution. He began to rub her arm and pull her closer just like any other morning. His hand slid into a puddle of liquid that stuck to his fingers. His eyes popped open and he saw it the red blood spread across the bed until it reached the spots it had already dried to a auburn like brown. "Help!" His voice carried without his consent. He leaped from the bed letting her body fall of his and flop to the mattress. He couldn't look at her while he scrambled to find the call button. His thumb continuously slamming on his target once he had gotten it in his grasp! "Help!"

"What? What's wrong?" the nurse came rushing into the room and immediately turned Lulu on to her side. "Can you tell me how long she's been like this?" She asked him but he could not speak. He shook his head in terror and unabashedly let his tears cloud his eyes. She pressed a button and sirens went off. "Sir, I'm going to need to ask you to wait outside." He was pushed out the door as other hospital personal went to attend to Lulu's unconscious body.

The scene played out before consistently as he wanted for any news. The blinds had been pulled down in her room and the minutes pasted by as if they were months. He would walk from the chairs in the waiting area on her floor and then back to her door to see if maybe they had forgotten to come get them. He would have been able to forgive that if he could just sit by her bedside again. He had to look at her, see her face, feel her pulse while he held her hand, and watch her chest move as she took in a new breath. As long as she was live very little else mattered.

"Dante?" A hand cropped up on his shoulder. He didn't feel it. He didn't notice when a body took the seat directly in front of him. "Dante!"

"Steve! How is she?" His body jumped out of the seat quickly. He was ready to race to her room to be next to her again, but the doctor didn't move. He slowly sat down again. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"She's stable for now," Dr. Webber told him in a flat and cautious voice.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!" Dante yelled. "What's wrong?"

"That's really all we can do right now. Keep her stable and comfortable. We're going to run more tests, but I need your help, Dante. I need to know more about the past few days. You were the last one with her… Your mom said that she had been staying at your place for the past few days. So… can you tell me about any symptoms or anything else that might help us? It could be the smallest thing and you might not think it's significant… just anything out of the ordinary that might shed some light on what has been going on with her."

"If I did, don't you think I would have said something by now!" His annoyance was written on his face. "She thought she had a cold! Nothing that would make her bleed everywhere in the middle of the night!"

"Alright, alright… Well… I can tell you that we've stabilized the bleeding with medication and we've given her an infusion. She's weak at the moment, so we're going to slowly test her through the day. We don't have to put her through too much trauma without knowing more about her condition." Steve leveled with him so that Dante was looking directly into his eyes. "I understand your are scared and no one can possibly blame you. This is all incredibly overwhelming… just comb over your memory the best you can, and if anything comes up then please let us know."

Dante nodded and then asked, "can I go sit with her?"

"Of course, but I would advise you to not get in bed with her again…"

"Is it my fault she started bleeding? Did I hurt her?" he questioned erratically.

"No, Dante, calm down. You're going to give yourself a panic attack." The doctor grasped his shoulders to fully get his attention. "Lulu is experiencing problems with clotting and blood was slowly leaking out of her dermis. Due to her malnutrition it wasn't contained by the epidermis. It happened throughout the night, and you did not do anything to cause it. She's on medication to stop it from happening again, and we'll be monitoring her even more closely."

He could not slow himself down enough to thank the doctor before his feet carried him back to her room. She looked as she did the first time he saw her in the hospital bed before she woke up. It felt like him had spun backwards or the entire night had only been in his mind. Her eyes slowly started to open just like they had before and she smiled the same as before. He considered the possibility that he was just reliving it. "Dante," she interrupted his thoughts. Her hand reached up and brushed his messy mop of hair out of his eyes. "What happened to you?"

"What happened to me?" He was dumbfounded. "You were the one who spent the night covering us…" he trailed off as he noticed that every last drop of blood had been cleaned up, and she already looked scared enough. The fear caused her pale body to relax further into the bed while he looked like he had just gone through war.

"Dante, are you bleeding?" Her voice sounded frail and she pointed to a giant splotch of brown that stood out of against his tan shirt.

"No, no, this is your blood." He closed his eyes in order to process his thoughts. "When I woke up you were bleeding everywhere, but they've cleaned it up. I've been too busy pacing around the hospital… I didn't even notice it. I'll call my mom and ask for a new shirt… I'm guessing Steve has probably already done that for me…" She face pulled a weak smile against her lips and her eyes partially closed. Her chest gave the rise and fall of someone who was sleeping until her eyes popped back open.

"I love you," she told him softly.

"I love you too." He kissed the hand he had been holding since he entered the room. "I was so scared. I thought… when I woke up this morning I thought you were dead. It was like my world was crashing around me. I'm not ready to say goodbye to you. I never will be."

"Then don't," she put it simply. "Don't ever say goodbye to me."

"I don't intend to… ever."

"There was an encephalitis break out a few years ago because of some monkey my dad had," she started to tell him, and he considered the thought the medication might have been playing with her words. "I got it and everyone thought I was going to die. My Aunt Bobbie actually tried to get my dad to say goodbye to me. He actually did everything he could do to get help me… held the doctors council hostage…" she laughed. "He refused to give up on me and I turned out to be just fine, and I'll be just fine again. Just please…" she turned serious and implored him, "please don't give up me. Just focus on all the things we can do when I get out of here."

**Author's Note: **7 chapters left.

Thank you for reading. Please remember to comment.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 – Oh, you look good with your patient face and wandering eyes.**

"Merry me," Dante had said it three times, but the words still didn't register in her mind. All she could do was stare back at him with shocked eyes that squinted as if what she thought she heard wasn't real. Her mouth was partially opened, but her voice forgot what it felt like to speak. "Lulu… a guy can only propose so many times without an answer before he starts to get extremely nervous…" he smiled awkwardly with his knee bouncing where he sat. He was about to fly out of seat at any moment. "You don't have to say anything… just a gesture? Nod? Thumbs up? We can try that blinking thing or knocking like they do in movies? Two blinks 'yes.' I don't care how we do it as long as you don't say no…. and you shut me up at some point, because I'm rambling… and you're not reacting…"

Lulu shook her head as if she were trying to pull herself out of a daze. "Did you just propose to me?"

"A few times at this point… followed by a monologue," he pulled her hands in to his and smiled.

"You just proposed to me? In the hospital?" Her confused voice reflected a tinge of remorse. "You proposed to me next to what you think is going to be my death bed."

"No. I proposed to you kind of spontaneously, because I want to marry you. Nothing to do with death or beds… maybe a little to do with beds… I am a fan."

"Stop it," she said calmly through a light apologetic smile. Her eyes protected a pity for him. "I don't think the possibility of me dying is something that we can just joke away. And I don't think simply getting married because I might be dying is something…"

"I'm serious, Lesley Lu," he briskly interrupted. "I don't think you are going to die. I think it's going to take a lot more than a crafty disease to take the great Spencer down. I just want to marry you."

"Then ask me if I get out of the hospital. The day I get released propose to me." The sorrow of her tone could not escape Dante, and he knew she thought it would never happen. The kind of sadness and fear that possessed her was a new facet to her ever fascinating personality. He had seen her scared a few times, but she was always apt to take the most dangerous situation on at a full speed like some sort of challenge. At the same time, he had never seen her sick before, and had not gotten used to comforting her when her attacker was her own body. "I'll definitely marry you if I get out here." She offered the most beautiful and genuine smile he had ever seen.

"Marry me now," he countered and tried to ignore the fact that he was basically begging. It didn't matter to him how much of a fool he made himself out of to be as long as she followed through with his wish.

"It's not a good idea to get married just to get married…" His eyes looked wounded as she continued to talk. "I love you," she paused and took a deep breath. "Marriages like this don't turn out well…" She felt for a moment like she might cry, but merely closed her eyes for a moment to regain her composure. "Do you remember when we talked about Dillon?"

"The guy that got you pregnant…" Dante's mind reeled as the possibilities. "Did you marry him?"

"No!" she answered so quickly she began to cough. "Georgie, Maxie's sister, married him on his death bed. Georgie was still underage so they got permission from her Dad, Mac, and they got married because everyone thought Dillon was going to die."

"What happened to them?"

"Well… me," she told him with embarrassment. "Dillon was my best friend, and even though Georgie was kind of my friend… I didn't want to lose anyone else… so I lied and manipulated my way into their marriage and slept with Dillon, because I was convinced I was in love with him." She sighed deeply. "What I did was terrible, and I take responsibility for it." She nodded along with her words. Her eyes never once wondering up to meet his and he paid special attention to her every feature. "I was a just a symptom. The problems in their relationship were bigger than just a third party. I mean… they loved each other… really loved each other. It took me forever to understand that, but they rushed into their marriage, and ended up divorcing before she died. That's not the kind of mistake I need to learn from on my own."

"First, you won't need to lie and manipulate your way into our marriage, but consummating our marriage would totally be welcomed…"

"Don't joke," she exhausted and winced which instantly stole the smile from his lips.

"Okay… okay, I won't joke." He cleared his throat. "We're not teenagers. We would not be getting married just to get married, and if that is all you can give me then you should turn me down flat. I'll walk out of here and when I come back tomorrow we can just pretend it never happened. Just…" His palms began to sweat as he rubbed his hands together in his laps searching for the right way to lay his words out. "I did not propose because I think you are going to die. I proposed because you being in the hospital makes me feel like I have wasted so much time. We could have 60 more years together… and I want all 60 of them, but we are on borrowed time. We don't know if we're going to get 60 more years, 60 months, weeks, hours… Whatever time we do have left in our lives should be together, and not a second more of it wasted. So, I want to marry you. As soon as you'll let me."

"Wow," was all she could manage to say.

"I think so too." His usual smarmy grin returned to his face. "So… thoughts, feelings, answers?"

"Okay."

**Author's Note:**6 chapters left.

Thank you for reading. Please remember to comment.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 – Don't hold this war inside.**

"I really don't want to know how you got a hold of that so quickly," Dante commented as he handled a document. He sat on the side of Lulu's hospital bed, examining it for discrepancies. Every state mandated markings were in the right tint and in the right places and there wasn't a single watermark missing. "This looks so real!" The only cause for suspicion was the fact that their full names were laid out perfectly.

"Why are you so quick to think it's fake? I said I wanted it legal," she chuckled at the pure amazement that appeared on his face. She looked on as his fingers traced the print. "It's real!"

"There's supposed to be a waiting period. Even if the license is real, it wasn't obtained by legal means, which means…"

"Which means you're going to close your mouth and take the opportunity to make me marry you before I change my mind," Lulu interrupted. Seeing his excitement temporarily put some of her nerves at ease. The sinking anxiety that came from most mistakes waiting to happen plagued her since she had agreed to marry him in the first place. Instead of quelling the fears, she plastered a smile on her face to keep him from noticing. "I did my part. You need to go out and find someone to marry us who isn't currently on call with the hospital."

"I don't see why we can't just get the hospital Chaplin to do it, he's here, and…"

"Here looking after people, sick and dying people, who need them for more important things than an impromptu wedding." She looked up from her stern words to see a faint shade of worry in his eyes, and welcomed the clamping that was coming from the doorway. She adverted her attention, and answered, "Hey."

"Hi, how are you feeling?" The doctor waltzed in holding a cell phone with his hand clamped over the mouthpiece. "It's your mother!" He whispered and handed the phone off to Dante. They watched as Dante grabbed the phone and left the room. "So…"

"I'm fine. I think… you tell me. You're the doctor!"

"I'm… hopeful. We're going to do everything we can for you. I promise." Steven had taken her hand and looked her directly in the eyes. "Right now, we're going to monitor your progress for the rest of the night. Blood test every 4 hours. We asked Dante to wait until after your next blood test before you guys get hitched… I just got an ear full from Olivia, because Dante didn't call her or tell her anything, and now you're all of a sudden getting married… Lulu, what's wrong?" He was babbling to coat the awkward silence until her expression turned pained. His instincts checked her vitals, and he was about to plug his stethoscope into his ears when she waved him away.

"I don't feel any worse than I have been. Not really any better either." Her body convulsed through a series of heavy coughs. "…Am I dying?"

Her voice had carried through the room and bounced off the door. Dante had just gotten off the phone with his irate mother, who was demanding an invitation to an unplanned wedding. He was headed back inside when he heard her ask the question he refused to let hold any weight on his mind. Rather than walk through the door, he stood out of sight, waited, and listened.

"I can't make that kind of assessment without knowing the cause of your symptoms, and we will find what's causing this!"

"What if you can't? What if it's one of those things that you only find in the autopsy?" Her tone was trailing off.

"I know you're worried, but there is no need to think like that yet." The more he spoke the less reinsured she looked. "Is this about marrying Dante? You think he's only interesting because he thinks you are dying?"

"No… he was very convincing. He gave this entire monologue about how he doesn't want to waste any time… I believed him." Dante smiled from behind the door as he listened to her assurances. The smile faded when she continued on sounding more apprehensive. "I don't want to get married and die. I don't want to not get to my marriage."

"I know it will be hard… but you're still going to have marriage… even if it starts out in the hospital."

"You know what I should be doing after I get married today?" she retorted abruptly. "People have sex after they get married… but I can't get laid. I have actually found the one thing that will turn Dante off. I could beg… and he likes that… but he is too scared to touch me. He tried to convince me to have our first time in his hospital bed while he was recovering from surgery! His parents came in… you came in… and he was still… but nope. After we get married today… I have to go to sleep… alone!" Steven couldn't think of what to say in response to her over-share. Just outside the room, Dante's mouth hung open as if her were about to catch flies. His closed his mouth, his eyes, and rested his head on the wall to the side of him. "Don't listen to me. It's not about sex. I really don't think I could handle it even if he was offering… I just don't want to be a bad wife."

"Being too sick to have sex for the time being does not make you a bad wife."

"Making him a widower before we even really have a marriage would make me a bad wife." Dante felt as if he had been kicked in the stomach. A hand landed on his shoulder and he saw a man in remotely religious garb. The only man he could get a hold of at short notice that was not tending to people in the hospital. Together they entered the room at Lulu's surprise. "We have to wait till after my next blood test," she blurted.

The phlebotomist came and went while they all nervously waited. Olivia swarmed in with tears at the ready and finally the proceedings began. Steve refused to let Lulu stand for the ceremony so Dante sat on the hospital bed next to her. He held her hand and frequently met her eyes as if to offer all the comfort he had in his body. Every time she saw him smile at her she felt a mixture of excitement and guilt. She was grateful to be marrying him in spite of all the fears she held about the future pain it could cause him.

Lulu coasted through the traditional vows with sincerity, and then the pressure turned on Dante. "Stop," he said lightly and her entire body froze. "Just stop for a second." His entire body began to pulse as he looked deep into Lulu's eyes. "I want to say my own vows." He was demanding and firm.

"That is highly irregular. The bride has already…" The celebrant tried to reason.

"Well... we are highly irregular…" And the ceremony continued. "Things seem pretty grim for us right now… it can be overwhelming, but I think we can make it. It's easier when we're together, like the world can keep trying, but it will never win against us. It hasn't yet. Even though you are sick and we're in a hospital… I would give anything to change it… but in spite of that… this is still the happiest day of my life. I have never done anything as important as being next to you and promising to spend the rest of our lives together. No matter what happens."

**Author's Note:**5 chapters left.

Thank you for reading. Please remember to comment.


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